Gov't tells hospitals to process resignations or risk losing trainee slots

The government will downsize the recruitment quota of junior doctors if training hospitals fail to approve their resignations by next Monday.

Two medical professionals walks inside a general hospital in Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

The government will downsize the recruitment quota of junior doctors if training hospitals fail to approve their resignations by next Monday.

In an official notice sent to the hospitals on Monday, the government said it would not penalize any junior doctors regardless of their working status and would grant special “exceptions” to junior doctors who return to hospitals or reapply for training after their resignation.

The government asked hospitals to confirm the vacancies caused by junior doctors’ resignations by next Monday and submit the number of junior doctors to employ to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s committee overseeing junior doctors’ training and education by July 17. The recruitment for the 2024 fall semester will begin on July 22.

A Health Ministry official told the JoongAng Ilbo that if hospitals fail to comply with the government’s request, the ministry will interpret this as meaning the medical facilities in question can provide services with their current work force.

In light of this, the government is less likely to allocate slots for junior doctors at those hospitals. Thus, the government can block hospitals’ opportunities to hire new junior doctors.

Considering the labor structure at training hospitals, where over 40 percent of medical tasks and services are handled by junior doctors, quota cuts would likely undermine hospitals’ operational capacity.

The government’s measure on Monday appears to push hospitals to process junior doctors’ resignations, something they have proven reluctant to do.

The government gave hospitals until the end of June to process the resignations but extended the deadline to mid-July.

After the Health Ministry's announcement on Monday, the official said there would be "no additional extensions to the deadline.”

According to a report from the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday, hospitals are left with three options: communicate with junior doctors’ regarding their intention to resign, send a certification to striking junior doctors as legal proof that they tried to confirm their employment status or approve their resignations en masse.

Although the government allowed junior doctors to leave hospitals without penalties, the sweetener does not appear to have appeased junior doctors.

A junior doctor who submitted his resignation in February said he does not plan to return to his hospital. “It is hard to understand why the government flipped its position in June after banning the resignation processing" for months, he said.

Prof. An Suk-kyoon, head of the professors’ emergency response committee at Yonsei University’s medical school, said the government’s measure is “insufficient” to earn the trust of junior doctors.

Although the government has taken fire for setting an “undesirable precedent” by leaving junior doctors unpunished for their collective action, the Korea Alliance of Patients Organization wrote that the measure could be deemed “necessary to minimize inconveniences that patients face” in a statement released Monday.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG, SHIN SUNG-SIK, CHUNG JONG-HOON [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]